With court win, Pennsylvania schools want plan, down payment

HARRISBURG, Pa. - When Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro unveils his first budget next week, the poor districts that won a landmark school-funding lawsuit will want to see him propose a significant down payment and a plan to overhaul how the state pays for K-12 education in what could be a term-defining moment for the Democrat.While the work does not end in one budget cycle, changing that course begins now, and lawyers for the school districts told The Associated Press at least $2 billion in additional funding for education would be a good start toward the billions more they say the poorest school districts need."We think that this is an appropriate investment to start to address the scale of the problem we’re facing," said Maura McInerney, legal director at Pennsylvania’s Education Law Center, which helped represent the school districts along with Public Interest Law Center and the O’Melveny & Myers law firm.But it’s only a start of what the winning school districts hope to see.Dan Urevick-Ackelsberg, senior attorney at Public Interest Law Center, said they’re hoping to see an action plan from Shapiro that shows how the state will develop a system that funds schools based on what students need."What we don’t want is a fight over this budget cycle and then to, in July, ask what happens next," he said.A judge ruled in February that the state’s system of funding public schools ultimately violates students’ constitutional rights — siding with six school districts, the NAACP and the Pennsylvania Association of Rural and Small Schools — in a lawsuit launched nearly a decade ago in pursuit of billions of dollars in additional annual aid.Lawyers for the school districts argued in court that Pennsylvania’s school funding system.